Cooling in many computer systems such as a rack-mounted server system is by way of a fan bank housed in the front or rear of a chassis supporting the servers that pulls air across the servers via air flow channels between the servers. To provide additional specific cooling for certain components such as a central processing unit (CPU) or other critical component, a heat sink, which is typically a metal device including radiators or other structures, can be adapted directly to the component to aid in cooling. In addition, some system components such as a CPU or hard drive may have individual fans in close association to further aid in cooling.
Other existing cooling methods including water-based cooling and immersion cooling. In water cooling, water flows through blocks that are adapted in place of heat sinks to withdraw heat via the water, which is then provided to an external radiator for cooling. Such water cooling is via a closed system because although water itself technically cannot conduct electricity, impurities in the water can cause electric conduction, such that great care must be taken to avoid contacting water on any electronic components. As a result, such water cooling can require very high maintenance because if a water leak occurs, the underlying equipment is destroyed.
Another cooling technique is full immersion cooling, where an entire server is sunk into an oil bath. The problem with this cooling technique is that hard drives cannot be located in the bath, so the hard drives have to be located on top of the bath, or must be sealed in environment-resistant enclosures. In addition, an immersion cooling system can take thousands of gallons of oil to be effective, and an entire data center may need to be reconfigured to provide for such cooling.